The Broad Party

 

Opposition immigration spokesman Laurie Ferguson has said Labor is "broadly supportive" of Petro Georgiou's bills ("Battle looms over mandatory detention" 14/6). Broadly? Labor doesn't seem to know what real leadership is, or at least not with Beazley at the helm. They signal their intent to block the Government’s tax cuts in order to strengthen their economic credentials even though the legislation’s passage through the senate is inevitable. The public doesn’t see this as principled, just partisan.

Now with the vocal dissenting backbenchers speaking out against this Government’s atrocious mandatory detention policy, Labor has a chance to win back a lot of their conscientious supporters. The one’s they lost to the Greens in the 2001 ‘Tampa’ display of populist pandering. Instead they have been reluctant to come out in full-throated support of Petro Georgiou’s bills because it is a Liberal initiative and not a Labor one.

Mr. Beazley, Labor wants children out from behind the razor wire, they want the to protect the mentally ill and all the vulnerable members of society who have been cast aside. So why don’t you lead the charge and leave the political manoeuvring to Mr. Howard?